Prosecutors: Group that hit Brussels planned France attack

Spokesman for the Belgian Federal Prosecutors Office, Thierry Werts, left, and Eric Van Der Sypt address the media during a press conference in Brussels on Friday April 8, 2016. The prosecutor’s office confirmed a fugitive suspect in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks was arrested in Belgium on Friday, after a raid Belgian authorities said was linked to the deadly March 22 Brussels bombings. The suspect, Mohamed Abrini, is believed to be the mysterious “man in the hat” who escaped the double bombing at Brussels airport, but further investigation is needed to determine Abrini is the third suspect of the airport attack. AP

PARIS — Belgium’s Federal Prosecution Office says that the terror group that struck Brussels on March 22 initially planned to launch a second attack on France.

But the office said Sunday that the perpetrators were “surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation” and decided to rush an attack on Brussels instead.

Two suicide bombers killed 16 people at Brussels Airport on March 22. A subsequent explosion at Brussels’ Maelbeek subway station killed another 16 people the same morning.

Investigators have found intimate links between the cell behind the Brussels attacks and the group that killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13.

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